The present invention relates to an improvement to automatic watering devices for animals.
It is known to make automatic drinking-troughs by providing a bowl above which is arranged a pallet mobile about a horizontal axis. The animal, by exerting a pressure on said pallet, operates a tap from which flows water into the bowl standing under said pallet.
It has proved that this type of device did not give satisfactory results with some animals such as piglets since they operate correctly only if the pressure is exerted in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the pallet, whereas such animals exert their action in a very confused manner.
Therefore, it has been proposed to place in the enclosures where the animals are kept, taps called teats, operated by a central tube, said tube causing the opening of the duct whatever the direction in which they are operated and conducting the water to the mouth of the animal.
Such a disposition offers many disadvantages: some young animals have shown a tendency to play with the apparatus and cause its operation not by acting on it only with their snout, but by rubbing themselves against it, with any portion of their body so that they splatter inappropriately and waste water; moreover, some animals, and this is particularly frequent with piglets, can bite and even eat the stem which, protruding obliquely, projects sufficiently for being caught between their teeth.